Chinese medicine is the earliest and records dated about 2500 B.C. available today give an idea abothe medical knowledge of Chinese.

•

In Chinese medicine, the use of Ephedra or

Ma huang

as a tonic has been reported.

•

Ayurveda or Indian Medicine is equally ancient. To form the science of life namely Ayurveda,

Charak Sushruta and Vagbhata

made a compilation of old and new drugs in the cure of diseases.

•

Egyptian medicine is also very ancient.

The Ebers Papyrus

dated about 1500B.C. gives a collectiondrugs prevalent in Egyptat that time, their classification and their use. Some of the drugs employed now such as, castor oil apomegranate bark are mentioned in this papyrus.

PRE-CHRISTIAN ERA

•

Greek medicine is said to be the origin of modern medicine and therapeutics. Hippocrates in fifth centuB.C. separatedmedicine from religion and was known as the father of medicine.

•

He laid down certain principles on which modern medicine is built. According to Hippocrates the foelements of nature namely water, fire, air and earth gave rise to the four humors of the body nameblood, phlegm, yellow bile or urine and black bile.

•

Any imbalance in one or more of these humors inflicted sufferings.

•

Galen

was a famous Greek Physician who practiced in Rome. His name is still used to refer some druas galenical drugs.

•

He was the father of polypharmacy.

•

Galenical drugs are pharmaceuticals compounded by mechanical means, mostly of the vegetabmaterial.

•

Paracelsus

introduced inorganic chemicals like mercury into medicine. He called this ‘Iatro Chemistry’medicinal chemistry.

•

He induced practitioners to use laudanum (an opium preparation), sulphur, iron, copper sulphate,potassium sulphate, mercurials and tinctures and fluid extract of various plants for treatment of disease

REVOLTS IN MEDICINE

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By the beginning of 19th century the principle of shotgun prescription flourished (Shotgun prescriptionone that contains a number of substances with no therapeutic efficacy. It is a result of ignorant attemto cure the disease, no matter what may be its nature).

•

Gregory

advocated methods like venesection, leeching emetics and drastic purgatives. Large dosespurgatives were given.

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The patient either survived or died. This sort of symptomatic treatment was referred to

as allopat

meaning 'other suffering'. This term allopathy is now being used to refer modern medicine.

•

Samuel Hahnemann

introduced homeopathy meaning ‘similar suffering’ at the commencement of 19century. In Greek, “homos” means same and “patheia” means suffering. He was known as the fatherhomeopathy. Homeopathy introduced by him had two newer principles that ‘like cures like’ and ‘dilutipotentiates the action of drugs’.2

MEDIAEVAL MEDICINE

MODERN MEDICINE

•

Buccheim,

a professor of Dorpat University who was known as the father of Pharmacology set up

thfirst laboratory to

study pharmacology. He discarded many remedies because rational scientific actior explanation could not be demonstrated in his laboratory.

•

By the middle of the 19

th

century, modern medicine had brought to fight disease only one effectiweapon ie.immunization against smallpox.

•

Later in quick succession came the anaesthetics and antiseptics. In the last quarter, the causatiorganisms for malaria, plaque, cholera etc. were identified.

•

Beginning in the 20

th

century, the fresh wind of synthetic chemistry began to revolutionise tpharmaceutical industry and with it the science of pharmacology.

•

New synthetic drugs, such as barbiturates and local anaesthetics, began to appear and the era of antimicrobial chemotherapy began with the discovery of arsenical compounds for the treatment of syphilis

by Paul Ehrlich

in 1909. He was known as the father of chemotherapy.

•

Further breakthroughs came with the discovery of sulphonamides by Gerhard Domagk in 1935 and thedevelopment of penicillin during worldwar II.

•

The addition of drugs to the therapeutic jungle is growing with rapid pace from the later half of the 20

th

century.

SCOPE OF PHARMACOLOGY

•

Pharmacology is the science which involves all aspects of the action of drugs on living system. It isthe study of the therapeutic value and/or potential toxicity of chemical agents on biological systems.It targets every aspect of the mechanisms for the chemical actions of both traditional and noveltherapeutic agents.

Pharmacodynamics is the study of how drugs act on the body while pharmacokinetics is the study of how the body acts on drugs. Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic aspects of the action of chemical agents are applicable to all related areas of study, including toxicology and therapeutics.

•

Toxicology is the study of the adverse or toxic effects of drugs and other chemical agents. It isconcerned both with drugs used in the treatment of disease and chemicals that may presenthousehold, environmental, or industrial hazards.

•

Therapeutics focuses on the actions and effects of drugs and other chemical agents withphysiological, biochemical, microbiological, immunological, or behavioral factors influencing disease.Each of these areas is closely interwoven with the subject matter and experimental techniques of physiology, biochemistry, cellular biology, microbiology, immunology, genetics, and pathology. Theultimate goal of Pharmacology is to design chemical agents to cure , ameliorate, or preventdisease

BRANCHES OF PHARMACOLOGY

•

Neuropharmacology

is the study of neurophysiological or neurobiochemical functions of thenervous system including the brain, spinal cord, and the nerves that are modified by drug action.

•

Cardiovascular pharmacology

concerns the effects of drugs on the heart, the vascular system,and those parts of the nervous and endocrine systems that participate in regulating cardiovascularfunction.

•

Molecular pharmacology

deals with the biochemical and biophysical characteristics of interactionsbetween drug molecules and those of the cell. It is molecular biology applied to pharmacology andtoxicology .

•

Biochemical pharmacology

is the study of action of drugs and drug metabolism, how drugsinteract with, and influences, the physiology of the organism.

•

Behavioral pharmacology

studies the effects of drugs on behavior of organism. It includes topicssuch as the effects of psychoactive drugs on the phenomena of learning, memory, wakefulness, sleepand the behavioral consequences of experimental intervention in enzyme activity and brainneurotransmitter levels and metabolism.

•

Endocrine pharmacology

is the study of drugs that are either hormones or hormone derivatives, ordrugs that may modify the sections of normally secreted hormones.

•

Clinical pharmacology

is the application of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics to patientswith diseases, it also includes pharmacogenetic component. Clinical pharmacologists study how drugswork, how they interact with the genome and with other drugs, how their effects can alter the disease3